AuthorTopic: Villa Quarry: A PSA (Read 1243 times)

As the title suggests, I mean this post as more of a PSA on an interaction I think catches some people by surprise than an exhaustive strategy exploration.In fact, you could argue this is more of a rules clarification than anything else, but I think it has enough examples/applications to warrant its own post.

With two Quarries in play (or any other way to make Villa cost $1 or $0), gaining Villas becomes a positive feedback loop limited only by the remaining Villas in the supply.

If they cost $1, gaining them consumes nothing, and if they're free, gaining one nets you $1 for the turn.

The only strategic implication I want to get into in the main post is that when these options are available, you can assume the Villa pile will be empty at any given point.

This has some obvious utility for winning on a 3-pile ending, and sometimes enables a "mega-turn," but if we want to get more specific or there are other ways to play around this, feel free to comment below!

I'm sure there's plenty to talk about here that would be better placed in a full-fledged article on Villa, but that's not the idea behind this post, so take from it what you will.

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that you don't necessarily want all of the Villas. If you don't need additional actions or buys, Villa is basically just a Copper (that can be drawn dead, costs more, etc.), and gaining a bunch of Coppers to your hand is probably not the best move.

So while this combo is certainly useful, you should take care not to do it unthinkingly just because you can; make sure that every Villa you buy is making your deck stronger rather than weaker (or denying your opponent, moving towards a three-pile, or serving some other purpose that makes it worthwhile). Even without this combo, I've often seen inexperienced players overbuy Villas just because it's convenient even when those Villas did them more harm than good.

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that you don't necessarily want all of the Villas. If you don't need additional actions or buys, Villa is basically just a Copper (that can be drawn dead, costs more, etc.), and gaining a bunch of Coppers to your hand is probably not the best move.

So while this combo is certainly useful, you should take care not to do it unthinkingly just because you can; make sure that every Villa you buy is making your deck stronger rather than weaker (or denying your opponent, moving towards a three-pile, or serving some other purpose that makes it worthwhile). Even without this combo, I've often seen inexperienced players overbuy Villas just because it's convenient even when those Villas did them more harm than good.

Even though your point is totally true, I feel inclined to point out that in this case villas don't cost more than coppers.

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that you don't necessarily want all of the Villas. If you don't need additional actions or buys, Villa is basically just a Copper (that can be drawn dead, costs more, etc.), and gaining a bunch of Coppers to your hand is probably not the best move.

So while this combo is certainly useful, you should take care not to do it unthinkingly just because you can; make sure that every Villa you buy is making your deck stronger rather than weaker (or denying your opponent, moving towards a three-pile, or serving some other purpose that makes it worthwhile). Even without this combo, I've often seen inexperienced players overbuy Villas just because it's convenient even when those Villas did them more harm than good.

Even though your point is totally true, I feel inclined to point out that in this case villas don't cost more than coppers.

I was referring to their cost once they're in your deck, for things like Remodel, Bishop, etc. (especially if Quarry is your cost-reducer). That is, even if they're only Coppers on-play, they could still have the same trash-for-benefit uses as, say, Rats (as long as you play your trash-for-benefit card before your cost-reducers).

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that you don't necessarily want all of the Villas. If you don't need additional actions or buys, Villa is basically just a Copper (that can be drawn dead, costs more, etc.), and gaining a bunch of Coppers to your hand is probably not the best move.

So while this combo is certainly useful, you should take care not to do it unthinkingly just because you can; make sure that every Villa you buy is making your deck stronger rather than weaker (or denying your opponent, moving towards a three-pile, or serving some other purpose that makes it worthwhile). Even without this combo, I've often seen inexperienced players overbuy Villas just because it's convenient even when those Villas did them more harm than good.

I'm glad you pointed that out. Whether or not Villas are good for your deck will more often than not determine whether or not this little interaction is useful in any way.

On the same topic a fantastic engine to murder your opponents that i pulled out the other day and just crushed someone. Villa/Bridge on same board. Buy literally as many bridges as you can get your hands on. If they collide just buy cheap villas. needs a tiny bit of draw but this absolutely crushed

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that you don't necessarily want all of the Villas. If you don't need additional actions or buys, Villa is basically just a Copper (that can be drawn dead, costs more, etc.), and gaining a bunch of Coppers to your hand is probably not the best move.

So while this combo is certainly useful, you should take care not to do it unthinkingly just because you can; make sure that every Villa you buy is making your deck stronger rather than weaker (or denying your opponent, moving towards a three-pile, or serving some other purpose that makes it worthwhile). Even without this combo, I've often seen inexperienced players overbuy Villas just because it's convenient even when those Villas did them more harm than good.

yeah i only bought villas when they collide. And i think i bought like 4 or 5 on my mega turn to draw the rest and pile out provies easily.

I had a game once where I got the cost of Villa down to 0, piledrove the Villas, and then used the $8 I'd thus generated to buy Pathfinding and put it on Villa.

Funnily enough, I did rather well in that game.

It occurs to me that you need a few strong terminals to make this a great move (as opposed to a good move). Without terminals, you basically have a bunch of Peddlers with free +buy... which is good, but not crazy good.

I had a game once where I got the cost of Villa down to 0, piledrove the Villas, and then used the $8 I'd thus generated to buy Pathfinding and put it on Villa.

Funnily enough, I did rather well in that game.

It occurs to me that you need a few strong terminals to make this a great move (as opposed to a good move). Without terminals, you basically have a bunch of Peddlers with free +buy... which is good, but not crazy good.

Also known as Markets, which is not the best card usually but gaining them practically for free I would argue is indeed pretty great. Especially as you deny the opponent to get them. Would I want up to 10 more markets than my opponent in my deck? Yes, please.

I had a game once where I got the cost of Villa down to 0, piledrove the Villas, and then used the $8 I'd thus generated to buy Pathfinding and put it on Villa.

Funnily enough, I did rather well in that game.

It occurs to me that you need a few strong terminals to make this a great move (as opposed to a good move). Without terminals, you basically have a bunch of Peddlers with free +buy... which is good, but not crazy good.

Also known as Markets, which is not the best card usually but gaining them practically for free I would argue is indeed pretty great. Especially as you deny the opponent to get them. Would I want up to 10 more markets than my opponent in my deck? Yes, please.

lol wow, I somehow forgot that Markets existed. But yeah, obviously getting a bunch of free Markets all at once is pretty awesome; I'm just saying you want terminals to take advantage of all the free action space.